petitefrancaise

austin community college. Sign up for any online course, apparently you don't have to finidh it... look at the health insurance option. Better still go to the fb group and ask your startup q's on there. They are great. See you there!

Jerseygirl

Has anyone mentioned healthcare yet?

Bob

I think you're way under estimating costs. Especially considering what you see advertised won't apply to you, with no US credit history, nor driving history.

A lot more hidden costs here than what you might expect, so probably best to think you'll have the same take home.

AC will be huge, but probably after the first couple of years when you get used to the heat and can tolerate knocking the AC up a bit to save money, it'll probably be a bit more than those who have been here a while.

You'll probably drive everywhere, so while petrol is cheaper, you'll use a lot more. Insurance will be a few grand. Cost of running a car, probably a few before long, won't be cheap.

Medical insurance, you're probably under estimating the premium.

School activities tend to be really expensive and if they do summer camps, be stupidly expensive even if they aren't borders.

petitefrancaise

teenagers as well.
so far this year, we;ve had one being slightly run over by a car, a lower jaw broken (separate incident) and another kid needing some oral surgery done to be followed by 2 years of orthodontics. Son will need wisdom teeth out under GA in the summer. good job I'm working.

SanDiegogirl

Well, according to Pulaski my approx quote of $1K for a family of 5 for health insurance was W AAAAA Y underestimated.

Maybe push it up to $1,500 so you won't have too much of a shock?

petitefrancaise

kinda like what I wrote....!!!

GeoffM

Yep, as Tom says, that $1200 (or more) is just the premium. See a doctor or get a prescription and that starts to come out of your pockets. If you had a really bad year you could double that cost per month.

Electricity for us, bearing in mind I work from home so have AC on more than many, ranges from $100 to $500 per month. Gas and water is cheap though.

Driving, expect to do way more than the UK. A quick Google suggests about 8,000 miles average per year in the UK compared to 15,000 in the US.

We're cord cutters so only have the Internet for TV (Roku/Firestick). That costs us $42/mo I think, for up to 75Mbps, plus Netflix ($12?). Get the internet/TV/phone with premium sports and movies, plus DVRs instead and you're looking at $250+. Bear in mind the headline prices that look cheap go skyward once you're past that introductory price and add taxes, fees, equipment rental, and everything else that isn't even in the small print.

Personally I would say we're slightly worse off in the US (more income but more outgoings too), but it's hard to get an exact comparison as our family has grown and DS has special needs which he didn't in the UK.

petitefrancaise

timewarnerspectrum is $45 for their cheapest internet only for up to 200mbps . Depends on where you'll be living though, I don't get anywhere near that. ATT is $50 for 50mbps and if you're in the area for it (central and south) then google fiber starts at $50.

richyje7727

Spectrum is the one to go for.... Although the google fiber looks good.... is it generally available throughout Austin ?

petitefrancaise

no, central/downtown up to UT in the north, south down south lamar blvd and east out to east riverside. Honestly, it's a bit expensive if you get more than the basic package.

whereabouts are you wanting to live?

tom169

Get about 225mb out of my spectrum.

petitefrancaise

like I said. Depends where you're living. You can get 1000mbps with google fiber. One of my techie clients who was about 3 yrs old told me it was "lifechanging". My daughter at UT gets speeds like this in the CS department of course and says it feels like she's on dial-up when she comes home. We are 7miles out of downtown and not exactly in the sticks

petitefrancaise

going back to the health insurance at ACC
https://myahpcare.com/wp-content/upl...st-Sheet-2.pdf

costs for a family of 5 including pharmacy and dental would be just over $20k a year and then you'd have all the co-pays etc. You might be better going to an agent.

Pulaski

I am not sure what you are paying in the UK, but the usual consensus here is that groceries and household cleaning products and consumables, run about $250/person/mth. So budget $1,250/mth for a family of five. ..... That is certainly the case for us, and we buy things from Walmart and get as many discounted things as we can find - meats, for example, are regularly discounted, so we buy whatever is on sale this week.
As others have said, you will be driving a lot further, and a lot more often, and your vehicles will be larger and less economical.

When we moved over, my wife and I travelled almost everywhere together, including commuting together, but still spent about the same amount (value) of money on gas in the US as we spent on petrol in the UK. If we had been using two cars our gas bill would have been a good bit higher than what we spent on petrol in the UK. By 2013, when gas was $4 a gallon, our daughter had started school and we were no longer able to commute together we were paying $650-$700/ mth on gas!!! Thankfully driving more efficient vehicles, and the price of gas falling, and using a discount plan, we have reduced that back to about $150/mth.

richyje7727

Morning...

I am ready for round 2 with you guys....

We are looking at Lakeway or close to.... We are looking in the Lake Travis ISD.